Returning to the same theme yesterday, he said: “We’ve seen lots of teams win major tournaments that, at the start, would not have been fancied to win it at all: Denmark winning the Euros in ’92 and Greece more recently winning tournaments.”

He added: “Your aim’s got to be: ‘We’re going to plan well, we’re going to work well, we’re going to set up well, we’re going to give the players as much confidence as we can give them, and we’re in this tournament to win it’.

“Unfortunately, that’s how we approached the World Cup and it didn’t get us very far. But let’s hope, next time, it’ll get us further, because our plans and our procedure and our aims won’t change.

“Afterwards, the games will be played and people will make their judgments on whether it was good enough or not good enough.”

England kick off their Euro 2016 qualifying campaign next month with a trip to Switzerland, before which they host Norway in a friendly at Wembley.

Their performances in Brazil have threatened to make the latter match a non-event, with a record low turnout expected.

Hodgson’s attempt to drum up interest in the fixture included suggesting England’s dismal goalless draw against Costa Rica in their final World Cup match had been a source of encouragement.

“Our final game against Costa Rica, when we gave a lot of young players a chance to show what they could do, I was quite buoyed by that performance,” he said.

“I’ve been buoyed by the performance of some of the players earlier on in pre-season and the first round of the Premier League, some of the young players.”